Building a Jacobite Stronghold

Anyone with an interest in Scottish history cannot fail to be impressed by the number and variety of castles that dot it’s landscape. Many of these were still in use during the Jacobite Risings, indeed some such as Eilean Donan were the scene of fierce fighting. Choosing a castle for The Jacobite Risings was therefore an interesting process as there are many that could have made the cut. Ultimately, it was the desire to draw upon the landscape of the Cairngorms National Park that would provide the inspiration as in the National Park there are two well preserved castles, namely Corgaff and Braemar, which were ideal candidates.
 
Both Corgaff and Braemar castles played a role in the Jacobite Risings. During the first rising they were both in the hands of John Erskine, Earl of Mar, who was a government supporter, and were burnt by Jacobites in 1689 or 1690 to prevent their use by government troops. After the collapse of the Jacobite effort, the Earl of Mar drew up a memorandum of his losses in which he petitioned the Government to levy forfeitures and fines upon his tenants who had taken up arms in the Jacobite cause to fund the restoration of the buildings. This seems to have been done as far as Corgarff is concerned, however Braemar remained in ruin until taken over by the Government in 1748.

The ruinous condition of Braemar Castle during the remainder of the risings became the deciding factor as we wanted to build something that was in use during the 1715 and 1745 risings; Corgarff was and so Corgarff was chosen. The castle commands a striking position, located in the eastern part of the Cairngorms National Park at a height of around 430 metres above sea-level and overlooking the south bank of the River Don. As it currently stands, the nucleus of the castle is a plain rubble-built tower of the 16th century, measuring around 11 metres in length (east and west) by 8 metres in breadth.

Braemar Castle

John Erskine, Earl of Mar (born 1675 – died 1732)

Corgarff Castle in Strathdon

Erskine didn't get the epithet 'Bobbing John' for nothing and in 1715 decided to rescind his support for the government and take up the Jacobite cause. Towards the end of August of that year he marched from his ancestral castle of Kildrummy and using Corgarff Castle as rendezvous with further troops, continued on to Braemar. On 6th September, possibly at the ruinous castle, possibly somewhere else, he rose the standard of King James VIII and III. The rising would not be a long one and after an indecisive battle at Sheriffmuir and defeat at Preston enthusiasm among the Jacobites was on the wane. When James landed at Stonehaven in December the rising was effectively over. In February 1716 James, Erskine and the rising’s other leaders fled to France and shortly after Corgarff would be the scene of the Jacobite army’s dissolution. The castle was brunt once again, this time by government forces.

Corgarff Castle

By the “Forty-five” Corgaff Castle had been repaired and would again play its part, for a short period acting as strategic munitions dump for Jacobite forces and the intended rendezvous of Jacobite forces. However, the rendezvous never happened as the castle was promptly raided by a party of the Government troops. The Jacobites were forced to quickly flee, leaving the greater part of their stores behind. We are fortunate to have a vivid account of the raid, written in a letter from Aberdeen on 6th March 1746, by Alexander Stuart of Dunearn, Captain in Lord Mark Kerr's regiment of Dragoons, to his brother, James Stuart of Drumsheuch:
 
"I returned on Wednesday from an expedition into the Highlands of Aberdeenshire, fifty miles from hence, to destroy a Magazine of the Rebels at Corgarff, which lies near the head of the Don. Three hundred foot commanded by Major Morris, and one hundred Dragoons commanded by me—the whole under the command of Lord Ancrum, were ordered for that duty. We marched from this on Friday, 28th February, in a snowy day to Monimuss, Sir Archibald Grant's house. Next day over mountains and Moors almost impassable at any time of the year, but much more so when covered with snow, to a place called Tarland. As soon as they saw us directing our March thither, they suspected our design on the Magazine there, and some rebels who lived there sent away an Express immediately to acquaint the Garrison, and to Glenbucket, who was with some men at Glenlivet above Strathdon, about Ten miles above the Castle.

Corgarff Castle

On Saturday morning we marched from Tarland, a most terrible march, to the Castle, which stands on the side of the Don, where I daresay never Dragoons were before, nor ever will be again, nor foot neither, unless Highlanders! Though we marched early in the morning it was past four before we arrived there. We found it abandoned by the Garrison, but so lately, that the fire was burning, and no living creature in the house but a poor cat sitting by the fire. They had thrown the barrels of powder down the bank into the river in order I suppose to destroy it, but had not time—and had conveyed the arms up and down the hills near it in different directions, and hid the bayonets under a dung-hill. However, we found all out, and brought away 367 firelocks, 370 bayonets. There were some more arms destroyed, which we could not carry. Ten thousand musket balls we threw into the river and amongst the heather, etc., etc., and it being impossible to convey away the powder for want of country horses, all gone to the hills with the country folks who had run away, being told by the rebels that we were to burn and destroy the whole country. We staved 32 double barrels of exceeding fine Spanish powder equal to 69 of our barrels, and threw it all into the river—and afterwards, for want of horses, were obliged to burn and destroy so many of the firelocks, that we brought but 131 to Aberdeen. We returned on Wednesday from such a country that a hundred men might beat a thousand from the hills above them—and had it snowed another night when we went there, it had been impossible to have returned. We were obliged to be two nights in the open fields—and sit on horseback all night. However, we happily executed what we were sent upon— and, thank God, returned safe, with only the loss of one horse. I do assure you the Clergy, who have everywhere in Scotland much distinguished themselves for our religion and happy constitution, behaved very kindly to us, were our guides and intelligencers everywhere—and three of them went quite up to the Castle of Corgarff with us, from whence, I forgot to tell you, we were obliged to return eight miles for quarters—and 'twas two o'clock in the morning before we arrived. Guess what a journey in such a country, in a dark night, snowing the whole time! . . . I hear now the Rebels are in great want of provisions. This Magazine is a great loss to the Rebels—it supplying them with ammunition in their marches thro' the Highlands, where carriages cannot go."
 
In Dougal Graham's history of the rising, published in September 1746, the only account to ever be written in rhyming couplets, a short description is given of the capture of Corgarff Castle. Graham however chose to apply a little artistic license claiming Lord Ancrum blew up the castle with the captured gunpowder barrels rather than simply staving them:

“Now while the duke lay at Aberdeen,
From England did his troops maintain,
Brought in his stores ay by the sea,
And laid no stress on that country,
From thence the earl of Ancram went,
One hundred horse were with him sent,
Major Morris with three hundred foot,
Near to the head of Don they got,
To take the Castle of Cargarf,
But ere they came all were run aff,
Wherein was a large magazine
Of ammunition, and arms clean,
Which did become the Earl's prey ;
But could not get it born away,
No horse he could get to employ,
Most of the spoil he did destroy,
'Bout thirty barrels of powder there,
Made soon that fort fly in the air,
And so returned to Aberdeen,
Long forty miles there were between.”

Following the collapse of the rising Corgaff (and indeed Braemar) was purchased by the government and established as a base for garrisoning troops. The army made significant changes to the castle, including adding an additional floor, installing large Georgian windows, adding ‘pavilions’ to its gable ends and surrounding the whole thing with a curtain wall. All of these features can be seen today and these are what are shown in the photos from our field trip.

The 18th century modifications to Corgarff left us with a bit of a problem because we wanted to build the castle as it appeared during the risings and so further research was required. Fortunately, the drawings of the  government engineers who made the alterations to the Castle are available and so we have ‘before’ and ‘after’ illustrations to draw upon. We also have the relatively unaltered remains of contemporary castles to inform us about more detailed features such as windows and eaves and so by using multiple sources of information we are able to recreate a reasonable approximation of the castle’s appearance before the government got their hands on it. This is not to say we apply no artistic license and certainly, the level of texturing and detail applied to the model’s walls are very much aimed at creating visual interest rather than representing absolute historical accuracy. While this can draw criticism, it is a line we must navigate when creating models that are intended to both provide an educational benefit and inspire enthusiasm. A further challenge was found in trying to get the scale just right. This is because while minifigure scale builds are generally scaled to around 1:40 to 1:44, minifigures just aren't very good representations of humans. What we have therefore is the closest representation of Corgarff we could get, using the form of the minifigure and the broader landscape as our guide. We are pretty pleased with the results.

Corgarff Castle is owned and run by Historic Scotland and is open Monday to Sunday between 1st April to 30th September. We thoroughly recommend a visit:
 
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/corgarff-castle

Plans of Corgarff Castle before and after reconstruction by the government in 1748. These plans are useful because they provide an idea of the state of the building during the "Forty-five".

LEGO Corgarff, based on what it might have looked like in 1745. Still quite a few adjustments to be made, but you get the idea.

We have a bit more certainty about the rear of the castle as fewer modifications were made.

We look forward to unveiling LEGO Corgaff as part of The Jacobite Risings: The Fight for Britain’s Throne – why not be the first to see it at Manchester’s Bricktastic this July?